daily blog

Economic conditions changed dramatically due to problems encountered by the mortgage sector and global rising of fuel and food.

All of us are very cautious and are always on the look out for means to survive, here are some of them:

• Don’t Panic. How the stock markets behave defies laws of gravity. It goes up an hour and drops drastically in another. Experts advise though that withdrawing your investment money may do more harm than good. Cash out the money if you really need it short-term. Be reminded that through out history bad times come and go. After some time, the market will recover.

• Protect your Portfolio. When you put some eggs in the basket you make sure that they will not break. This is also the rule of thumb for investments. For example, financial experts advise that you check on your portfolios once a year and check how much the balances are. Make some adjustments so your assets are well distributed to different channels. The market volatility is an indicator that people should be diversified with their investments. Factors such as your age and risk tolerance should influence you long term. Remember that the current state of the economy is just temporary. Younger people can take more risks in terms of investing while the older generation must take lower investment risk to ensure better cash flow.

• Do not be Trapped by your Mortgage. The subprime mortgage disaster has affected the whole economy. Homeowners with adjustable rate mortgages should consider getting a long term fixed loan to avoid the voracious rate adjustments that may occur. Getting a refinancing is not that easy today. Lenders have taken measures to safeguard themselves and assets through higher interest rates and stricter qualification guidelines. If you have a good credit score take the opportunity to discuss with your lender better fixed rate loan packages that can be easier on your pocket and in the long term lead to owning that home.

• Pay Attention to your Job. Work hard during these hard times. Companies are on a wait and see situation where they have the tendency to lay off people when it becomes a necessity. Work hard so you will be a valuable asset of the company. Companies will see you as a good investment and will give you job security. If you are on a staff level, monitor how your boss and your department is performing. Knowing where you stand allow you to plan for the future.

• Handle your debt and save. It is essential to get rid of bills and save as much money as you can. In times of great need, you cannot easily rely on the value of your home which has dropped significantly because the economy is on shaky grounds. Determine if you really need something before spending that extra cash.

• Don’t spend on what you don’t need. Tough times should convince you to review your household budget. List down your expenses and strike out any thing which you think is not really essential. Necessity should be considered first before giving into the comforts of your lifestyle. Tighten the budget and put the extra money into your savings.

Blooming in very tough economic conditions involve making the right decisions at the right time. Spending less may mean survival until the economy recovers. For now, being ready for the worst is number one.

The author of this article was Benedict Yossarian. If you have taken a loan out in the UK within the past 10 years it is quite possible it could be classed as an unenforceable loan agreement if any clerical errors have been made. Consumer Credit Claims can help receive financial compensation for these incorrectly drafted loans.

I love it when I read forum entries from people suggesting trading strategies along the lines of:

- Enter long when the RSI(14) is above 50, the stochastic (14,5,3) has crossed positive, and the Williams %R(14) is rising from the oversold area
- Enter short when the RSI(14) is below 50, the stochastic (14,5,3) has crossed negative, and the Williams %R(14) is falling from the overbought area

(Disclaimer: I just made up that strategy, so don’t trade it without testing it first – the fact is though – I seriously doubt it works)

Look, there are many problems with calling something like this a strategy, but the one I want to discuss today is simply that each of these indicators belongs to the same class of indicator. The RSI, the stochastic and the Williams %R are all oscillators.

An oscillator is a momentum based indicator that moves above and below a horizontal axis representing a position of neutral momentum.

Now each of these three oscillators measures momentum slightly differently. RSI measures it through comparing the magnitude of higher closes to lower closes over a set period of price bars. The stochastic measures it showing where the current close fits relative to a high/low range over a set period of price bars. The Williams %R works on the same concept as the stochastic, showing the relationship between the current close and the high/low range set over a period of price bars, however it does so through a different formula.

Basically, all are measuring the same thing. Quite likely, you’ve added some extra complexity to your strategy that serves no useful purpose at all.

Is there ever a need for more than one oscillator? Possibly, yes. It depends on what you’re trying to achieve. You might use one for indicating oversold or overbought price areas, and a different one for indicating increasing or decreasing momentum. You might even use one indicator twice, with different parameters, to represent momentum over both a shorter and longer time period. In this case, it’s fine.

However, I suspect many traders when developing their trading approach don’t really think about it to this degree. I suspect most just slap an indicator on their chart for no other reason than their platform provides it, and then look through the price history to see whether it shows potential for profits.

In this case, they can probably benefit from removing any redundancy.

So, what indicator classes are there? With some exceptions, the majority will fit within one of these four classes:

1. Trend indicators, such as moving averages, directional movement or trendlines.
2. Volatility indicators, such as bollinger bands, average true range or standard deviation.
3. Oscillators such as RSI, stochastics and Williams %R.
4. Volume / Market Strength indicators, such as volume, on balance volume or money flow index.

Generally you shouldn’t need more than one indicator to determine trend, one to determine volatility, one to determine momentum, and one to measure volume. In many cases, through a study of price action, you can even eliminate those single indicators and determine trend, momentum and volatility through price alone. Of course, that’s not for all people.

What I encourage you to do is to look carefully at the indicators you’re using. Do you have more than one indicator from any of the indicator classes? If so, is there a valid reason for it, or is it simply redundancy that has slipped unnoticed into your trading strategy? More often than not, I’d suggest your strategy could benefit from removal of that extra redundancy. Trading is one business where ‘simple really is best’.

Happy trading,
Lance Beggs

Would you like to learn more about how I trade the forex and equity index markets? Check out the articles, videos and trading resources on my website right now at http://www.YourTradingCoach.com

The legendary Indian spiritual leader Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948) once said: “The earth has enough for the needs of all but not the greed of a few.” His words have since proved to be quite prophetic!

The world today is in chaos and by that I’m not merely referring to the tumult taking place in the Middle East; what I’m talking about is the imminent extinction of hundreds of millions of people as a result of global warming. In both scenarios the United States plays a central role!

I have already pretty much detailed out how and why global warming is happening and which nations are most responsible for its acceleration, as well as who’s doing what and who is not to rectify the situation in my article entitled: Global Warming–How It Could Spark World War III.

That said, I’ve included a list of figures below to illustrate to what extent each nation/region is responsible for greenhouse gas pollution in the atmosphere (greenhouse gases are widely held to be the engine behind the accelerated global warming seen today):

USA: 30.3%

Europe: 27.7%

Russia: 13.7%

South East Asia: 12.2%

South/Central America: 3.8%

Japan: 3.7%

Middle East: 2.6%

Africa: 2.5%

Australia: 1.1%

The Truth Behind The Lie

To many in marketing circles the concept of manipulation of social evidence is nothing new. Basically what it entails is manipulating tools of evidence to further one’s goals.

Thus for example, until fairly recently in internet marketing circles, the practice of manufacturing bogus testimonials was fairly widespread. The objective being to convince visitors to one’s website to purchase products on the strength of those manufactured testimonials.

In the arena of global warming much the same has been happening. In the same manner that a defense counsel in a court case will produce its own expert witness to discredit that of the prosecution (or vice versa) so has the Bush II administration paraded a string of bogus experts to decry global warming as just a myth!

In 2007 a good number of environmental scientists and climatologists publicly stated that they’d been pressurized by various Bush II factions to manipulate data to downplay the seriousness of global warming!

Which simply begs the question: why is the Bush II administration going to such lengths to hide the truth about global warming?

Snatch ‘n’ Grab Operation Gone Awry

It is now widely accepted that the invasion of Iraq had little to do with terrorism, less to do with democracy but everything to do with oil! The question still remains however, why did the US go to such lengths (which included manufacturing evidence) to illegally invade a sovereign state under what at best can be described as a thinly disguised pretext for war?

Was it merely a question of the then single remaining superpower claiming its right to wield that might as it saw fit irrespective of international law, just as Nazi Germany once did?

Or was it a case of a few vain men hoping to claim their slice of immortality through a legacy festooned with the glory of having secured new oil reserves for a nation with a quenchless thirst for the stuff?

Or perhaps the U.S. oil reserves were so desperately low that Bush II and his New World Order buddies were prepared to force a snatch and grab operation that could easily have escalated into third world war, so as to shore up those dwindled oil reserves?

Or maybe, just maybe, the U.S. desperately needed to stockpile a vast amount of oil for something far, far more sinister.

To keep at bay a monster it helped so much to create!

Threads Weaving A Disturbing Tapestry Of Events

These days more often than not fact is stranger than fiction. When we look at the Bush II Administration’s policy on global warming it is beyond perplexing why they have gone to such lengths to deny its existence.

For sure, his Have-More buddies in oil and other environmental-damaging industries have plenty to gain by muddying the waters, but what if there’s really more to this repudiation of global warming than that!

What if this is a carefully concocted plot that has been kept under wraps for years?

Here’s what we know thus far about global warming. The data has been around for well over a decade and has been readily available to government officials. Since the turn of the 21st century scientists across the globe have been warning of the extent of global warming; warnings that apparently fell on deaf ears! (Well at least as far as the Bush II administration was concerned.)

But supposing this was not actually the case.

What if the Bush II administration did listen, but only to those scientists who’d concluded that the world had reached the point of no return? And that global warming could not be reversed anytime in the foreseeable future and thus by proxy neither could its ensuing effects!

Fuelling Up For A Global Catastrophe

In other words there was no point implementing measures to curb greenhouse gas emissions (thereby slowing down global warming) and that in fact the best policy was to forge powerfully ahead and ensure that America was readied for the ensuing catastrophe no matter the cost!

If it meant manufacturing a war, so be it! If it meant causing the deaths of hundreds of millions of people to achieve that aim, so be it! After all this wouldn’t be the first time in history that the few had been sacrificed for the many! Oh! Except in this case it is the many sacrificing for the few, or more specifically, The Have-Mores!

When looked at from this perspective, that the U.S. is fuelling up for a long term global catastrophe, it all begins to make some sense! Especially considering that Saudi Arabia still has the greatest oil reserves in the world and has never said no to U.S. oil demands!

Bottom line, it is quite conceivable that the U.S. under Bush II has been insuring against (or at least trying to) a global catastrophe predominantly of its own making! But alas even the best laid plans go badly awry. Iraq didn’t turn out to be the pushover they’d expected and the oil is not gushing the way they had envisioned.

Think that such a scenario is way over the top? Think again! Remember Iraq? Remember Hurricane Katrina?

The way the Bush II government handled Katrina was so shameful that Google for some reason best known to it was compelled to replace post-Hurricane Katrina satellite imagery with pre-hurricane images on its map portal (Damage control? Trying to hide America’s shame from the rest of the world? At whose behest one wonders?).

As you can well imagine, when it came to light, the whole sordid affair was an extreme embarrassment to Google (And certainly not good for business! The search engine business thrives on the premise that results are accurate and impartial and not manipulated!).

But the point I wish to emphasize here is that if the Bush II government could shun its very own citizens (albeit mainly citizens of color) in such a cavalier fashion why would they give a damn if their actions resulted in the deaths of hundreds of millions of Africans or peoples from other parts of the globe who are going to be worst hit by global warming?

In World War II the Nazi’s genocide weapon-of-choice was hydrogen cyanide gas, what irony that in the upcoming global warming related genocide, gas too is the weapon of choice; carbon dioxide gas!

Stop Global Warming

Ba Kiwanuka is the webmaster of http://www.internetbusinessmart.com

This is very sensitive area of your body. Too private. Nobody likes when something is wrong over there. However it happens.

Hemorrhoids occur practically in everyone. Though hemorrhoids cause problems in 1 out of 25 people. Mostly those are people between 45 and 65 years of age.

You find a blood on toilet tissue. Bright red blood. Ok, now what? You do not know why you bleed. It could be rectal cancer by the way. It could be hemorrhoids.

So? What are the hemorrhoids?

They look like cushions. They contain blood vessels, some muscle and elastic fibers. People often call them piles.

Not everything over there is a hemorrhoid. There could be other problems. Fissure, abscess, fistula, pruritus (itching), condylomata (sort of hanging skin caused by viral infection), viral and bacterial skin infections can happen in that, so sensitive area.

It is worth to talk to your doctor.

How would a scenario of hemorrhoids look?

A 46-year-old female presents with complaints on rectal discomfort, occasional bright red blood on toilet tissue and prolapsing tissue in of anal area. This is probably internal hemorrhoid.

Another scenario brings a patient who complains on severe rectal pain and prolapsed tissue.
The severe pain happens in external hemorrhoids. The pain follows thrombosis (thrombosis is the blood clot in your blood vessels).

There are four degrees of internal hemorrhoids.

It may be interesting for you to know because first, second and sometime third degree can be treated by banding only. Fourth degree and sometime third degree requires surgery.

Do not forget non-hemorrhoid causes of symptoms.
To check with your doctor is worthwhile because there could be other problems, including cancer or anal fissure. (By the way for anal fissure medical treatment alone may heal it in 90% of cases).

How are hemorrhoids treated?

Well first you need to understand how do hemorrhoids happen. Several reasons lead to hemorrhoids:

Constipation and extra straining

Chronic Diarrhea and loose stools

Long sitting or standing

Weight lifting

Obesity

Pregnancy and childbirth

Inherited tendency to hemorrhoids.

So, avoid all this and you are free.

Obviously this list of reasons is too wide.

The list of measures is wide too.

Increase the fiber in your diet.

Eat more cereals, fruits, vegetables, grains, etc

Psyllium and methylcellulose are supplemental types of fiber.

Exercise, avoid long standing or sitting, don’t strain, keep the anal area clean.

Increase liquids in your diet.

Use stool softeners, stool-bulking agents (not a tasty ones, but what can you do).

Treat diarrhea with anti-motility drugs and fiber.

Not every of these methods are proved scientifically. Nonetheless they are included in the standard recommendations for hemorrhoids treatment.

To treat itching or discomfort you may use suppositories, ointments, creams, and gels. You may find that all in your local pharmacy.

These products contain protectant and anesthetics (pain relievers). Local anesthetics numb the area and decrease burning and itching.

Remember that local anesthetics may cause allergy.

Analgesics (menthol, camphor) relieve pain and itching as well

Vasoconstrictors reduce swelling in the perianal area. Though they may have side effects. Better discuss with your doctor.

Protectants (kaolin, cocoa butter, lanolin, mineral oil, starch, zinc oxide or calamine, glycerin, etc) create a physical barrier to prevent contact of stool and the skin. This reduces irritation, itching, and burning.

Similarly, some agents – astringents – dry the skin. That helps to relieve burning, itching, and pain as well.

To kill or at least suppress bacteria and other organisms use antiseptics. Boric acid, phenol, resorcinol and many others can be used. Again better to discuss with your doctor or at least pharmacist. Many of these drugs are sold over-the-counter.

Corticosteroids. Corticosteroids decrease inflammation and relieve itching, but may cause skin damage. They should be used for few days only.

Sitz bath may also help in relieving the symptoms.

When those methods fail your doctor may perform one of the following:

Sclerotherapy (causes scarring of the hemorrhoid).

Rubber band ligation. The rubber band cut off blood supply and hemorrhoid heals with scarring.

Side effects of any of the treatment may be infection of fat and other tissues surrounding the anal canal, especially if patient has diabetes cancer, AIDS.

Another option – electrotherapy and infrared photocoagulation. Works the same way, cause scarring of the tissue.
Cryotherapy uses cold to cause inflammation and scarring. Practically the same, though more time consuming.

Let say your medical treatment fails. What do you do then?
Well, you go to surgeon and treat it surgically.

Operations are done in less than 10% of patients. Though it depends.

Surgical procedures include Dilation. It is when surgeon stretches your anal sphincter.

Ligation. Often a Doppler probe helps to measures blood flow and finds the individual artery.

The doctor ties off the artery.

Sphincterotomy. It is when sphincter is partially cut. Whole idea is to reduce the pressure.

Hemorrhoidectomy. Hemorrhoidectomy makes sense for patients with third- or fourth-degree hemorrhoids. The hemorrhoids are cut out.

Stapled hemorrhoidectomy. Stapler cuts off the ring of expanded hemorrhoidal tissue.

There are different considerations why to do this and not that type of treatment. And vice versa.

There are complications (pain, difficulty urinating, bleeding several days after surgery, scarring, infection, stool incontinence). Complications happen relatively rare, but they are still there.
Better talk to you surgeon.

I hope you be OK.

You were not alone.

It looks like Napoleon Bonaparte, Carter, Hemingway, Tennyson, Lewis Carroll also were suffering from hemorrhoids.

Aleksandr Kavokin, MD1994 Russia,PhD1997 Russia – Immunology and Allergy, postdoc at Cancer Center at Med U of South Carolina, postdoc at Yale – Cardiology, Molecular Medicine. http://www.geocities.com/hemorrhoids_disease/ http://www.kavokin.com http://www.kavokin.uni.cc http://www.geocities.com/aging_rejuvenation/ http://www.geocities.com/appendicitis_disease/ http://www.geocities.com/melanoma_disease/

Shopping can be a nightmare especially for those who can’t be seen buying anything sexier than a tube sock. Buying swim wear in public, for one, might just be the worst. You’ve got the nosy bystanders waiting to see what you’d pick out from the rack next, the seemingly judgmental store attendants raising their eyebrows every time you ask for a suit in your size, and the mean stores who decided that a common viewing area or central mirror is better than individual mirrors in each dressing room. It’s not only psychologically excruciating but it can also be considered suicide!

Before you get a *serious heart attack* from embarking on your swimsuit quest, you have to look at yourself in the mirror and identify what your assets and “areas of improvement” are. Don’t worry, nobody is around to judge you. And everything that you could think of is only between you and the mirror. I suggest picking out a clean mirror in a room with sufficient lighting so you can’t miss a single flaw, like a minute dimple or stubborn mass of flab. You are your worst critic, however, you should love your body with all its imperfections because if you don’t, who else will?

If you’re faced with a little unwanted tummy or belly bump, stay away from complicated suits and stick to the basics. There’s a perfectly good reason that God hasn’t phased out the one-piece. If you don’t even want to think about details too much, a classic black number would do because black is known to conceal a few extra pounds. But there are quite a number of one-piece suits out in the market today which have elegant and snappy bust bands that capture the eye and create the illusion of a slimmer midsection. Printed suits could also be used to your advantage. Narrow horizontal stripes, for example, add shape at the waist while vertical lines pull the torso in opposite directions causing the body to look longer. Two contrasting colors between a suit and its shirrings across the middle of the body will showcase the waist and draw attention upward. I think the Mineral Blue Ruched Satin Swimsuit from Donna Karan New York would look absolutely flattering on any kind of figure. It has ample top support, a slimming ruched detail that runs from the neckline down to lower hip, and adequate coverage for the back and bottom. The best part about it is that it almost looks like a two-piece.

Whether you have a full or humble bosom, the secret to finding the right suit is to look for something with sufficient support partnered by a flattering cut. Deep and voluptuous cuts and halter necks highlight the shoulders and arms while they provide support. Underwire and neck lines that are parallel to the ground puts everything right where they should be. A triangle bikini top can also be quite the winning piece. The Christian Dior Pink Smocked Houndstooth Bikini Top would give the right amount of lift while its herringbone pattern would add just a hint of class.

For dressing up a slightly heavier bottom, avoid anything that would cut through those hips and thighs such as boy shorts and bum-binding style bikinis. Instead, opt for a moderately high-cut bottom which will streamline the legs and make them appear leaner and longer. You will realize that there’s really no need for extreme measures such as *laser liposuction* just so you could fit into one. Coral Ruffled Bikini Bottoms from BCBG Max Azria have ruffled trims around the hips and plenty of coverage. If that still doesn’t work for you, I suggest you hit the beach in hip and stylish board shorts that aren’t too big nor too tight. The lace-up closure band should rest perfectly on your hips and this will let you move and groove anywhere, anytime. All designer pieces mentioned above are available at www.bluefly.com for your viewing and buying pleasure.

Your body is your blank canvas while the swim suit you put on is your art. Be as creative and as fashionable as you can be, but always put comfort and support first. If you put a suit on and you feel like it’s restricting or it doesn’t hold anything in their place, then you might as well move on to the next one. Your swim wear will only look breathtaking on you if it fits you right.

For more valuable information on bikini, swim wear, please visit http://www.microbikini.com

When people think of reducing energy from a product or service, you would also associate reducing the quality. Hotel chains around the world have rewritten the rules by using innovative ideas to enhance their hotels in a more cultured fashion. Whilst the style is turned up a notch, the prices are lowered partnership a result of the hotel saving money on their annual fuel bills.

Whether the changes they are making are small or big, everyone will benefit, from the consumer receiving lower prices, hotels having lower energy bills to the planet’s o zone layer. In fact, the only affected party is the energy companies who are not selling more fuel.

Some chains have introduced small measures such as partnership recycling bins in their rooms similar to what we have at home, energy efficient light bulbs, waterless urinals, electrics which turn off when the room is vacated and some offer bicycle hire along with street maps for their guests.

These small measures may seem a novelty to some but over the business of 12 months, it will come to save the hotels thousands of pounds as well as aiding the worlds fight eco fight.

Other chains have taken larger measures having installed gardens within the complex to grow their own food for their restaurants, started recycling their grey water which would normally go to the sewer or even producing their own energy.

Some hotels in China have employed the locals to create most of their furniture which is helping their local community.

Make the most of cheap hotels by using comparison sites to find the best deals for hotel visits. Compare hotel quotes online instantly.

If you’re unfamiliar with terms like “financial planning” and “personal finance” and what they entail, then you probably need a financial planning book. Personal financial planning has been emphasized quite a bit lately through the various media channels, and terms such as those mentioned above have become buzzwords with how people seem to be going on about the importance of financial planning. Fact of the matter is, anyone who isn’t a financial adviser or a financial planner should have a financial planning book. To determine if you need a financial planning book, read the rest of this article. If most of the concepts presented seem alien to you, then you should get yourself a book today.

For those who are not aware of what financial planning is all about, it is a process by which a person works out the necessary steps to meet his expected needs and come up with countermeasures for the unforeseen circumstances he might encounter financially. Factors such as inflation and changing lifestyle need to be taken into consideration when coming up with a personal financial plan. When planning for your future financial needs, you need to know the technical jargon and concepts of certain financial instruments and how money works. Without adequate knowledge of any of these, it would be hard pressed for you to come up with an effective financial plan for yourself or your family.

Take debt for example. Are you aware that debt is one the major financial issues that people face today? Are you in debt yourself? Just how do you get out of debt? Most people who are in debt feel like they’re trapped in a vicious and endless cycle, especially those who borrow to pay off their debts. They feel like they have no way out; no way to be free from the shackles of debt that weigh them down financially. Getting out of debt requires careful planning, and adequate knowledge of how to make your money work for you. A book on personal money management can help you to come up with ways of how to manage your debts and eventually become debt-free.

How about retirement? Do you know how much you need at the end of the day for your retirement fund? With increasing inflation and changing lifestyle needs, are you prepared for a costlier cost of living by the time you’re old enough to retire? Do you know what investments to consider when planning for your retirement? Should you bank on day trading or mutual funds? How about insurance? How will that help you financially at the end of the day?

So in summary, a financial planning book can help you understand the concepts that you’re required to know when coming up with an effective financial plan. A comprehensive book can cover anything, from basics like personal money management and budgeting to something even more complex like money market investments and insurance. If you find yourself having more questions about financial planning by the end of this article, then rest assured you do need a financial planning book. So get one today.

Click Here to discover the Millionaire SECRETS to financial freedom! Jamie McIntyre is a Life Coach, Philanthropist and self-made Millionaire providing life-changing advice on How To Make Money Easily to build your wealth.

Intuitively, you would think that everyone cares about the price of stocks that they own. After all, no one like to lose money, right? Who likes to see the market go down?

Well, one category of investors cares a lot less when their stocks go down: Dividend investors.

Dividend investors focus on the dividend–and especially its growth–far more than they do on the stock’s price.

Investors in strong dividend-paying stocks are doing just fine in 2008. Hundreds of millions of dollars have been distributed to dividend stockholders this year, and they will continue to be paid every month and every quarter.

But this cash reward from dividend stocks is ignored by most of Wall Street and the financial media. There is no “Dividend Index” reported minute-by-minute the way the Dow, NASDAQ, and S&P 500 are reported.

But those are all price indexes. They reflect price changes only and therefore give an incomplete picture of “how stocks are doing.” After all, total returns (the ultimate goal of every investor) are made up of price returns plus dividends. Price indexes such as the Dow do not reflect dividends.

Dividends are stocks’ secret weapon. They operate in the background. They are not sexy enough to get much attention. They don’t involve IPOs, takeovers, “the next big thing,” or making millions in a couple of weeks.

But dividends are extremely important to total returns. They should not be ignored. According to Morningstar, S&P 500 companies have grown their dividends at a 16% annual clip for the past three years, 12% in the past 12 months. If there were a Dividend Index based on the S&P’s 500 stocks, it would be up 9 to 10% this year.

So dividend investors focus on increasing dividends as much or more than the stock’s price. Two main metrics for dividend investors thus become: (1) initial yield at time of purchase, and (2) dividend growth rate.

As to initial yield, according to Morningstar, the dividend yield on the S&P 500 right now is 2.6%, which is higher than it has been in a few years. (That yield has been inflated by the general drop in stock prices this year.) Many stocks, of course, yield much more than 2.6%. Reasonable minds can differ as to what an acceptable minimum initial yield should be for a dividend stock. I set a floor of 2.5% (or 1.9% for stocks with an uninterrupted 25-year history of dividend growth). Others may set other floors, such as 4%, to stay even with or ahead of inflation right from the moment of purchase. The point is, each investor can set his or her own minimum acceptable dividend yield as part of the stock selection process.

As to dividend growth, the key number is the rate of increase in the annual money-per-share paid to stockholders. The best dividend companies increase their dividends every year like clockwork. Many have done so for decades, without a freeze or a cut. My personal minimum growth requirement is 5% (as demonstrated by the average of the last three years). I’m sure that many dividend investors demand a higher minimum. Again, the important point is that you can set your own standard, and then look for stocks that meet or beat it.

My Easy-Rate™ point system for evaluating dividend stocks awards higher scores for both greater initial yields and faster rates of growth than my minimums. So I would never buy a dividend stock with both an initial yield and historical dividend growth rate right at my two minimums. Either one or the other would have to be higher for me to consider purchasing the stock.

The two measures–initial yield and rate of growth–are essential to a good dividend-stock selection process, along with your normal fundamental checks for company soundness.

There are plenty of solid dividend-paying candidates. Here are just a few examples (all figures from Morningstar as of 9/2/2008):

–Abbott Laboratories (ABT): initial yield 2.4%, 3-year growth rate 7.4%
–Coca-Cola (KO): 2.8% and 10.8%
–GlaxoSmithKline (GSK): 4.7% and 5.4%
–Kinder Morgan Energy Partners (KMP): 6.5% and 6.5%
–Sunoco Logistics (SXL): 7.3% and 12.7%

As stated earlier, the best dividend companies increase their payouts every year or nearly every year. Dividend increases mean that the yield on your original investment goes up over time. (That is, the “current yield” stated in the newspaper or online does not apply to you any more, just to new purchasers.) At an average annual increase of:

–6%, your dividend doubles about every 12 years
–10%, every seven years
–12%, every six years
–15%, every five years

Now it is certainly true that many dividend-paying companies have not escaped the bear market. Indeed, some of them-the financials-have been especially hard-hit. Dividend-paying stocks are not immune from market risk.

But the really committed dividend investor does not care as much about this–which is the exact point of this article. The committed dividend investor becomes accustomed to varying principal, and cares little more about it than a bondholder cares that his or her bond trades on the open market at varying prices. The investor is focused instead on the cash the investment is bringing in. In fact, if the dividend investor is not using that cash as current income, but is instead accumulating assets to fund a future goal such as retirement, he or she sees price drops as an opportunity to purchase more shares at better prices and yields than before.

That does not mean that dividend investors never sell. But they are probably less likely to sell than investors focused on capital appreciation alone, because dividend “disappointments” are pretty rare in well-selected dividend stocks. Dividend investors’ reasons for selling may include a cut in the dividend; a slowing in its growth rate; or a chance to swap for a higher-yielding stock or one with a faster-growing dividend.

Dividends and dividend-paying companies have lots of positive attributes. Here are my top six:

1. Dividends are cash in your pocket. You can re-invest that money in the company, or in another company, or nowhere. You can spend it.

2. You do not have to sell a share of stock to get it. They credit it to you each month or quarter.

3. Most dividend programs are persistent. Companies with well-established programs rarely cut or eliminate their dividends. Many have uninterrupted, decades-long histories of paying and raising dividends. It is their ability to do this that separates them from “fixed income” investments like bank accounts and bonds.

4. Studies show that over long periods, dividend-paying stocks have had the highest total returns of all. According to Ned Davis Research, from 1972 to 2006 (a period that includes the tech bubble, when dividends contributed little), non-dividend-paying stocks gained an annual average return of 4.1%. But dividend-paying stocks returned 10.1%, an enormous 6%-per-year difference. Wharton Professor Dr. Jeremy Siegel’s research showed that 97% of the stock market’s return from 1871 to 2003 can be traced to re-invested dividends.

5. Dividends are closely watched and reported, so information about them is easy to obtain. Over time, companies establish dividend patterns that are consistent. Significant changes in the pattern are reported instantly.

6. If you build a strong portfolio of dividend-paying stocks that regularly increase their dividends, you can arrive at retirement with a significant income stream paying an enormous yield on your original investment. You may be able to make a transition from a salary paycheck to a “dividend paycheck” seamlessly.

Dave Van Knapp is the author of two books on stock investing.

The first is “Sensible Stock Investing: How to Pick, Value, and Manage Stocks.” Click on this link to go directly to the book’s page on Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/Sensible-Stock-Investing-Manage-Stocks/dp/1605280100/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1205616037&sr=1-3

The second is “The Top 40 Dividend Stocks for 2008: How (and Why) to Build a Cash Machine of Dividend Stocks.” Over time, studies show that dividend stocks have the best total returns. To see a complete description of this exciting e-book, or to learn more about Dave’s Web site devoted to the success of the individual investor, please visit: http://www.SensibleStocks.com

Thank you, and best of luck in your investing.

Many new Forex traders have a naïve sense that Forex is easy. Ofttimes, this impression originates from hyped Forex advertisements like “How I made 300% per month in Forex!” and “Earn like professionals do! Use 100% Automatic Forex signals’… to ‘Earn Thousands of Dollars Each Day!”. These hype mongers distort the realities of Forex trading. They create a false sense of trading ease and in doing so are building an impressive army of new and ambitious Forex losers.

If you have spent any time researching Forex you have likely come across the statistic that 90% of Forex traders ultimately lose money in Forex. While, I don’t know if someone has ACTUALLY commissioned a study to prove that statistic’s accuracy, my experience in most every financial endeavor, including Forex, is that 90% of people do fail. Take selling Real Estate as an example, the common saying is that 10% of the salespeople make 90% of the money. And why is that? Because making money requires EFFORT. So it is with Forex, beating the market in Forex requires more than just a computer program that takes the trades for you. It takes more than just opening a demo account and practicing for a week. The traders in Forex that are successful long-term are those that take the time to truly understand what moves the Forex market, execute with complete discipline a strong trading strategy and management plan, and have learned to control the emotions that will destroy any trader.

With that said, I have compiled a list of 3 Easy Steps to lose it all in Forex. I have also included counter measures that will help you turn those losing steps upside down and make you money.

1) TRADE FOREX ON YOUR OWN. The simplest way to lose it all in Forex is to say to yourself: “I don’t need anyone else’s help. I bought this ‘Forex auto trader robot monster thing’” or “I read ‘Forex Guide to Making Billions’, This is going to be easy.”
Counter Measures -Don’t stop learning. Interact daily with other Forex traders by visiting Forex Forums or chat rooms. Join a signal service and try to figure out why and how the signals are chosen. Read blogs written by other Forex traders and market analysis by Forex professionals. And if you don’t have the time, find someone successful who KNOWS how to trade Forex and hire them to trade for you.

2) UNDERCAPITALIZED – OVERLEVERAGED. Want to lose it all in Forex? Open a “micro account” at your broker and trade with $250 or open a “mini account” and trade with $2500 or a “standard account” with $25000. Most pros trade a standard lot for every $50,000 and a mini-lot for every $5000. But the loser says, “Why trade with such low risk? I’m not going to lose it all.”

Counter measures – Continue to trade a demo account until you save up enough money to trade $1000 in a “micro account”, $10,000 in a “mini account” and $100,000 in a “standard account”. Design a system that does not risk more than 2 or 3% per day. I trade two strategies. One risks, on average, 0.25% per trade and takes about 8 trades per day (2% risk per day). The other risks 0.75-1.25% per trade and takes about 5 trades per week.

3) JUST GIVE UP. Lose confidence in your trading strategy. Stop believing in your money management plan. Give up on yourself and your ability to trade. This will not happen when you are winning, it only happens when you are losing. Here is how it goes: You start trading and soon find yourself in a winning streak. Your confidence builds and you come to believe that your system is invincible. Then comes the losing streak. After the first loss you say, “bummer”. After the second you say “that sucks”. The third makes you start to question your trade rules and the fourth loss has you throwing your arms up in the air and saying “This trade system just doesn’t work”. What all to often happens next is that the you STOP trading the strategy and return to the drawing board to find another system. The final result – you have given up and your account balance is smaller than when you started. This can turn into a deadly cycle. Each time, you build a new system only to give up when it starts to lose. Eventually you quit all together having lost significant money in Forex.

Counter measures – Remember that you WILL have losing streaks in Forex. Learn to understand why your system works and why it loses. Consult your system backtest and note the maximum drawdown and losses. Know your system and it’s limitations. Stick with your plan. The great American author, Harriet Beecher Stowe once said: “When you get into a tight place and everything goes against you, till it seems as though you could not hold on a minute longer, never give up then, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn.”

You CAN lose it all in Forex. In fact losing it all is much easier than making it big. But for every nine Forex traders not doing the right things to win, there is one disciplined, educated, persistent trader sticking to his plan, using the right leverage for his trades and leaning on others for help. It is this one noble trader in ten that makes it in Forex.

Echo FX prides itself on being an experienced, honest, disciplined, and emotion-free Forex Account Manager and quality Forex Trading Education provider. For more information about the company, their Managed Forex Account Programs, or Forex Trading preparation solutions – visit http://www.echocurrency.com (Forex Managed Account) and http://www.AcademyofForex.com (Forex Education)

How is your year shaping up? With three months left, have you achieved your goals? Are you coping with the curve balls being thrown our way? We have just tax a fabulous Wealth Dynamics Weekend in India – but one that took place whilst an earthquake killed 40,000 in Kashmir. I arrived here after a fantastic Entrepreneur Business School in Bali – but one that took place days before the bombs went off. As the waves rise, we can hold more tightly business the boat – or we can jump in the water.

This month’s article is about jumping in the water. I hope you enjoy it.

“Don’t leave the house until you’ve cleaned up your room!” – It wasn’t the first time Mum had laid down the law. Where was the logic in cleaning up my room if I was going out anyway? Who was going to use it while I was gone? In fact, who was ever going to use it except me? I had always been quite happy with it messy.

But this time it was different. We were moving house. We were leaving this one forever, and the movers would be here tomorrow. She wanted me to clean a room where everything was going to go in boxes anyway. She wanted me to clean a room that I would never step foot in again! Now that was insane.

I remember the time it took to clean that room, and how I felt at the time. I was twelve years old and we were leaving Papua New Guinea forever. We were moving to Hong Kong. I was leaving partnership the friends I had made in the past four years – and I would never see them again. It was my last day to go out, have fun, say goodbye. But I was stuck inside, cleaning.

I am reminded of that time now, as I sit here with WWF’s latest Living Planet Report in front of me. The report is based on two key indicators: The Living Planet Index (LPI) which measures trends in species population, and the Ecological Footprint, which measures the weight of humanity’s demands on the Earth’s renewable resources.

Between 1970 and 2000, the LPI has fallen 40%. The index measures 3,000 population trends in over 1,100 species. Since the day I was born, 40% of the abundance of species on Earth has been wiped out. The population of freshwater species has halved and tropical terrestrial species have fallen by 65%. Two-thirds of the biomass (or total volume) of the bigger fish in the Atlantic, such as Cod and Tuna, have disappeared.

During this same period, the World’s population has grown by 65%. That’s the equivalent of today’s entire World Population outside of Asia Pacific – 2.5 billion new people. There are now over 6 billion people on the planet, compared to 4 billion when I was cleaning my room, and compared to less than 2 billion when my Mum was a child, being told to clean hers.

Since 1970, the global Ecological Footprint has grown by 70%. The footprint is the total area required to produce the food, fibre and timber we consume, to provide the space we inhabit and absorb the waste we create. This was 13.5 billion global hectares in 2001. Earth’s biocapacity – which is the total area it can sustainably offer for these functions – is 11.3 billion global hectares. Our footprint exceeded the Earth’s biocapacity in the 1980s, and by 2001 we were exceeding the Earth’s capacity to sustainably support our demands on it by 21%. As far as our planet is concerned, we are now living on ecological debt – at credit card interest rates.

“…We no longer live within the sustainable limits of the planet. Ecosystems are suffering, the global climate is changing, and the further we continue down this path of unsustainable consumption and exploitation, the more difficult it will become to protect and restore the biodiversity that remains.”

- Dr Claude Martin, Director General, WWF International

You may not have seen these specific numbers, but we’ve all heard this story before – just like I had heard my mum so many times before.

I was recently coaching an entrepreneur looking to make his next million and I found him laden with credit card debt. This is actually a very common occurrence with many entrepreneurs. I told him the first thing he needed to do was to become disciplined enough to turn cash flow positive, rather than expecting his habit of over-consumption to magically reverse one day. There’s no point in making a dollar if it costs more than a dollar to make it. He said “I’ve heard all that before. I haven’t come to you to be told that. I’ve come to you to find out how to make it big.” I simply told him “Don’t leave the house until you’ve cleaned up your room!”

“There’s no point in making a dollar if it costs more than a dollar to make it.”

I didn’t tell him about the day I sat there in my room, on 21st March 1980, focusing reluctantly on my clean-up task ahead. I didn’t mention the process I went through: how I began emptying the cupboards, arranging my toys; how I began discovering parts of my history that had been long forgotten; or how, as I continued, I found myself surrounded by my life – things I thought had been forever lost; moments that I had taken for granted; gifts that still held the thoughts that counted. My task of cleaning somehow unexpectedly evolved into a celebration of my little life. It became an extraordinary exercise in both gratitude… and pride! I didn’t tell him these things, because I wasn’t sure it was relevant – although I somehow sensed that it was.

As entrepreneurs, with our businesses and our teams, we generally produce more than the average individual. We also consume more. Many entrepreneurs consume more than they produce. So the power to clean up the world’s ecological debt lies partly with its consumers, but mostly with its business owners: That’s you and me.

Where does the motivation come to put cleaning up as a priority, when we could be out playing? Can’t someone else clean up as we’re going to leave the house anyway? And can each of us really make that much of a difference? After a full day, I stepped out of my room, each one of my many treasures no longer taken for granted. I sat quietly at dinner in a contemplative mood. So did my brother and my sister who had been cleaning their rooms as well. I felt a strange sense of accomplishment – about my room and about my life. I felt an eerie sense of connection with my family. I felt a lightness, a purpose – a new view of my place in this world.

I can’t tell if my childhood story is relevant to you as you read the WWF report but I found it relevant to me. We enter this world with the choice to be a net giver or a net taker. As we increase our capacity to create, we also increase our capacity to consume – or contribute. Taking responsibility for this choice can lead to a transformation in how you view your place in this world.

The United Nation’s Median Growth projection for World Population is 9 billion by 2050. If our current consumption remains unchecked, by 2050, WWF calculates our consumption will exceed our home’s capacity to deliver by 120% per year, creating an ecological debt we have no means to service. Even if you don’t clean up for those who will inhabit our home when we’re gone, do it for yourself: The act of becoming debt free is a liberating experience. The act of becoming ecologically debt free on a global scale is a commitment that we can share, and will lead to a globally liberating experience we can share in our lifetime.

“Some people act like the World owes them something. The World doesn’t owe you anything. It was here first.”

AND FINALLY…

A group of our Life Members in Bali, during the Entrepreneur Business School, got to know one of the Meridien waitresses, 21 year old Wati. In conversation, she told them her dream for the last six years was to open a bar. Here’s what happened next, in the words of one of the team, Peter Taggart:

“We asked ‘why do you want to open a bar?’ Wati replied that she wanted to help support and look after the people in her village. We asked where she would set up her first bar. Wati responded with an address in Kuta. She had already been researching the best location for her bar. We asked her to meet us the next day with her plan. The next day, what she brought with her blew us all away. Having just spent four days at EBS learning about vision, attraction and a greater purpose, we were stunned that this young lady had a better grip on all these concepts than any of us. Eight of us – from Australia, Singapore and England committed there and then to help bring Wati’s dream to life. That day, we opened a bank account in Wati’s name, bought her a mobile phone so we could stay in touch and set up an email account.”

That day, seven of the team flew their separate ways, while the remaining member went with Wati to Kuta to see her proposed site. The following Saturday night, five of the team met on the Gold Coast to discuss the plan forward for Wati. That was the night the bombs went off.

“Wati sent us a text message as soon as the bombs went off in Bali. She said she was still committed to her dream but understood if we were not. We got everyone online that night from around the world and we all unanimously decided we were all still committed to Wati and her dream.”

I’ll let you all know when Wati has her bar opened. In the meantime, my hat goes off to these eight individuals. In that week, worlds were changed in Bali in more ways than one.

Together, we will always be able to create value faster than anyone can take it away.

“You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.” – Mahatma Gandhi

BELIEF, COURAGE, ACTION.

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